Quoted:
flash66,
"...almost get tears in my eyes"!
Christ, I'm G–D Limey and I DO get tears in my eyes. Heroism is international, it has no boundries, it's an absolute. It can even be totally misguided and wrong but, its any individual's committment to what they believe to be true – no matter what nation, no matter what the nationality, no matter what the era. And that individual's resolve to complete the mission is always heroic.
Remember Kipling? – "You're a better man than I am Gunga Din"?
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Many brave men in that photo, as the quote goes, "Uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Odds are that most of those guys did not walk off of Iwo.
Sukebe:
That was the source of my info as well. I was unaware that Rosenthal made that comment without seeing the photo and was under the illision for a long time that the memorial photo was staged. Rosenthal didn't even know he had it till they told him.
stcyr:
Short war story. At my wedding (oops, not part of this combat story), I had a saber arch of SF friends of mine and a retired Sergeant Major who was of Japanese descent and from Hawaii was in charge.
My wife had friends from out of town attend, and one of them was an older Scot, who was married to a Chinese lady from Hong Kong.
Turns out, during the libations that my SGM friend and the Scot had served in Korea in the same area and time. They knew one another's units.
It truly is a small world and it warmed my heart to see these two old warriors from completely different cultures drinking and swapping stories.
95thFoot:
As the Duke of Wellington said about some of his own men, "I don't know whether they frighten the enemy, but by God, they certainly frighten me."
Great quote from Wellington, of many from him, but my favorite is the response he sent from Portugal when asked to account for deficiencies in his Army inventory. His reply was something along the lines of:
"I can account for everything except one case of jam and six shillings from the officers mess fund.
My understanding was that I was sent here with this army to defeat Napoleon.
I can either look for the missing property, or fight Napoleon, but not both.
Which do you prefer for me to do?"